Ableton Live

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:28 pm

yow!

I've done a few searches for an all around Ableton Live thread, but they are all specific questions.

My goal is to have a place where anyone can ask any questions regarding the software Ableton Live, so we'll see what happens.

My question is:

How do I use multiple inputs in the same track?

I'll explain my setup and my goal. I have a microKorg synth that I run through ableton, via a left (mono of course) output on the synth itself...Using mono obviously isn't that awesome, especially when I have to use a lot of delay just to balance the sound.

Now, the microKorg has a left output and a right output.. I could have a cable going from the left output and a cable going from the right output into two seperate inputs on my sound card. My question is, how do I get both of these inputs to play out of the same track in Ableton, thus making it STEREO instead of MONO. I'm sure there is a way, but I can't find any sort of answer or guidance pertaining to this setup. If anyone knows anything about this, please fill me in!

If anyone has any questions at all dealing with Ableton Live, I'll be sure to help you find an answer and resolution to your problem and/or question!

Pantheon · Post by **Pantheon** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:37 pm

You most certainly can do this and is something I use all the time.

How many inputs does your soundcard have? (i'll assume 2 (sterio) for the time being)

It sounds like you have ableton setup to use your inputs as mono, ie 2 sepourate inputs (left in/Right in). You should be able to fix this in the options of Ableton.

Click: Options->Preferences->Audio->Input Config->(then select 1/2 (sterio) )
(you should see that 1 (mono) & 2 (mono) is already selected)

You may want to just enable everything (make them yellow), to give you most flexibility.

Then to use this, make a new track and select "Audio From: Ext In->1/2" and that should be sterio.

Pondmuk · Post by **Pondmuk** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:53 pm

Ok here's one... How do you get that really rich, clean, deep bass sound? Is it just a sine wave? What's the best way to create this in Ableton?

Pantheon · Post by **Pantheon** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:08 pm

I like to put down just a sinwave, quite loud and low. Then a add a small amount of saturation (or extreemly fast compression) to the overall mix and this spits some nice harmonics out of the sin wave.

Another way is to have two deep saw tooths and slightly detune them from each other. Then set the filter to lowpass removing most of the harmonics, and have its envelop roll of to a cutoff of zero over a long period. Then add just a touch of resonance a little.

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:16 am

Pantheon wrote:You most certainly can do this and is something I use all the time.

How many inputs does your soundcard have? (i'll assume 2 (sterio) for the time being)

It sounds like you have ableton setup to use your inputs as mono, ie 2 sepourate inputs (left in/Right in). You should be able to fix this in the options of Ableton.

Click: Options->Preferences->Audio->Input Config->(then select 1/2 (sterio) )
(you should see that 1 (mono) & 2 (mono) is already selected)

You may want to just enable everything (make them yellow), to give you most flexibility.

Then to use this, make a new track and select "Audio From: Ext In->1/2" and that should be sterio.

My sound card has 6 sound inputs, all stereo capable of course. I'm using mono cables, so I absolutely have to use both inputs at the same exact time. I can't make a mono sound stereo, at least not how it really should be. For example, the micro has some left/right delay and a lot of LFO options dealing with the left and right channels. Know what I mean?

Another sort-of example - When running my microkorg through ableton, all I need to do to get sound is press the record button on any single audio track, whether it be coming from the left or right outputs on the korg (doesn't matter either way). When I hit record on the next audio track it will be coming out of the opposite channel, which is great.. I just need to know how to get the sound coming out of both channels at once. I don't have the capability to use the stereo (dynamic) output on the microkorg, my guitar cables are all mono.

Hopefully that narrows it down a bit, going to mess around in the preferences like you mentioned - thanks for the quick reply too man, I appreciate!

This image could help you understand the setup a little better:

There are left and right out, which I have a cable plugged into each one.. Now I know it works running into two seperate amplifiers for the complete stereo sound, but I just don't know how to do the same in ableton.

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 1:19 am

Pondmuk wrote:Ok here's one... How do you get that really rich, clean, deep bass sound? Is it just a sine wave? What's the best way to create this in Ableton?

My advice is to use some sort of softsynth/vst, I haven't tried the ones Ableton came with.. I know of a free minimoog vst that has some tight bass capability.. Still have yet to get a clean rich and deep bass out of the microkorg though.. I'm wondering if it is possible.

Pantheon · Post by **Pantheon** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:11 am

@ 88marquis:

ah ok, so you can get two mono inputs at the same time, both coming into different tracks?
and you want to record as one sterio track?

Ok I think I understand your problem now.

You need to use some track routing in ableton.

In the very right side of ableton you will see some little circle buttons ( I.O, S, R, M, D, X ).
Make sure that "I.O" is enabled.

Then...

Create 3 audio tracks.
set track 1 and 2's input to be the left and right coming in from your microkorg.
Set both tracks to "monitor" IN.
Pan track 1 left and track 2 right.
Then select track 3 and set "monitor" IN.
Then set track 3's "audio from:" to "no input".
Then for track 1 and 2 select "audio to:" to track 3.

Now track 3 should be the correct sterio mix coming from your microkorg.
You can record on this channel in full sterio.

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:18 am

Pantheon wrote:@ 88marquis:

ah ok, so you can get two mono inputs at the same time, both coming into different tracks?
and you want to record as one sterio track?

Ok I think I understand your problem now.

You need to use some track routing in ableton.

In the very right side of ableton you will see some little circle buttons ( I.O, S, R, M, D, X ).
Make sure that "I.O" is enabled.

Then...

Create 3 audio tracks.
set track 1 and 2's input to be the left and right coming in from your microkorg.
Set both tracks to "monitor" IN.
Pan track 1 left and track 2 right.
Then select track 3 and set "monitor" IN.
Then set track 3's "audio from:" to "no input".
Then for track 1 and 2 select "audio to:" to track 3.

Now track 3 should be the correct sterio mix coming from your microkorg.
You can record on this channel in full sterio.

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

I'm about to try this, but this seems to be the EXACT answer I was looking for man - going to give this a try, will report back soon!

Phasen · Post by **Phasen** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:53 am

Pondmuk wrote:Ok here's one... How do you get that really rich, clean, deep bass sound? Is it just a sine wave? What's the best way to create this in Ableton?

add the effect 'crystal bass' to two tracks of sine wave- one slightly detuned from the other.

also, the 'sub bass' preset on the free minimogue VST is great. that plugin tends to eat up some CPU but ive never had it crash ableton.

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:20 pm

I guess I'm missing one of my adapters.. So unfortunately I need to find it before seeing if Pantheon's suggestion works. I'm almost positive that's exactly what I was looking for though.

Skytree · Post by **Skytree** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 4:04 pm

88marquis wrote:I guess I'm missing one of my adapters.. So unfortunately I need to find it before seeing if Pantheon's suggestion works. I'm almost positive that's exactly what I was looking for though.

Hope that does the trick Pete. If not, there might be a hardware solution, too. Pretty straight-forward, but what I'd do in your situation is plug your 1/4" cables into the MicroKorg outputs, and then join them up with a 1/4" > 1/8", mono > stereo adapter (assuming you have a 1/8" stereo input on your soundcard).

Personally, I try to use hardware routing over software...Ableton's pretty damn flexible in that department, but it's nice to trim down on unnecessary tracks to streamline the workflow, IMO. Although, if you don't have a stereo splitter in the vein that I mentioned, creative routing will save you a few bucks, so that's a plus. (:

P.S. Having a dedicated Ableton thread is a great idea...I'll pop in here frequently if we can keep it rolling!

Bryan · Post by **Bryan** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:32 pm

Cleaning up a .wav file?

I've got an old old recording of me playing guitar. It was done at low volume with a buzzing in the background, and I was hoping to 'remaster' it a bit by low-passing, normalizing, etc. However when I open it up Ableton analyses it and treats it as a sample that is adjusted to the master tempo, resulting in a mess.

Any ideas on getting around this?

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 10:58 pm

Bryan wrote:Cleaning up a .wav file?

I've got an old old recording of me playing guitar. It was done at low volume with a buzzing in the background, and I was hoping to 'remaster' it a bit by low-passing, normalizing, etc. However when I open it up Ableton analyses it and treats it as a sample that is adjusted to the master tempo, resulting in a mess.

Any ideas on getting around this?

I'm not sure how to disable the auto tempo deal, but I know you can double click the clip in the track and on the bottom there should be a button titled Warp highlighted, you can just click that and it will go back to normal. As far as cleaning up background noise and the like, I use cool edit pro - its great for getting rid of hiss/scratches.

Basepair · Post by **Basepair** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:08 pm

88marquis wrote:As far as cleaning up background noise and the like, I use cool edit pro - its great for getting rid of hiss/scratches.

i use Soundforge for post-production. if there's a part of the recording with no guitar (even between notes), but hum/buzz you can use that hum/buzz to cancel it out- inverse phase on it and apply to the track. might not have perfect results depending of course on the recording, but worth a shot.

Beacon · Post by **Beacon** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:47 am

Anyone here planning to get Max for Live?

88marquis · Post by **88marquis** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:47 pm

Just heard about it right now actually! It looks pretty awesome, although it looks like it might be tough to get the hang of.

TEARZ · Post by **TEARZ** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 4:19 am

i f'd something up in my ableton yesterday...if anyone can help it would be mucho appreciated..

so i decided to install a plugin for the first time...i tossed the vst plugin in a folder on my desktop, then when i went to find it through the plugin devices i set the vst plugins folder where i had put it..on my desktop. ableton never actually installed the plugin this way but instead installed some apple plugins which aren't even in that folder instead. i don't even know where these apple plugins are on my computer. so then i went to open up impulse to make a beat and all the live stuff and my own presets are gone and the same with all the other live devices. they all just say 'current project (temp)'. wtf?

obviously i'm retarded and installed the plugin the wrong way, but how do i get everything back to normal?

and is the correct directory as follows: library/audio/plugins/VST...?

Beacon · Post by **Beacon** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 6:25 am

It checks two directories:
(username)/library/audio/plugins/vst and HD/library/audio/plugins/vst
If you have plugins in both you'll get a User and Local folder in Ableton.

Not really sure how to get your stuff back to normal though- haven't seen that before.

Pantheon · Post by **Pantheon** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 11:07 pm

Bryan wrote:Cleaning up a .wav file?

I've got an old old recording of me playing guitar. It was done at low volume with a buzzing in the background, and I was hoping to 'remaster' it a bit by low-passing, normalizing, etc. However when I open it up Ableton analyses it and treats it as a sample that is adjusted to the master tempo, resulting in a mess.

Any ideas on getting around this?

Just double click the audio file once you have drag'd it into Ableton somewhere. You should see the wavform of the audio and some parameteres for Pitch, etc. Just un-check the warp button and it wont stretch your audio file. You can also dissable automatic warping of samples in your Ableton Preferences to stop that happening in future.

Guido · Post by **Guido** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 2:25 am

http://kashmirboots.com/upload/out.wav

So I just made a single bass note and added the "instant soup" effect over it. This is what I get. As you can hear it starts out with some weird noise and throughout there is some interference. Anyone know of a better effect or method to create this lowpassed and very spacey and ethereal sound? Thanks!